Registration is now open for the 2014 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO, November 21–24 in Denver, and I want to personally invite you to attend. Register and book your hotel room through the meeting website by June 20 for the lowest rates.

More than 5,000 landscape architecture professionals and students from across the United States and around the world will gather in Denver to earn up to 21 professional development hours, enjoy the fellowship of our profession, and reconnect with the fundamental elements of design.

Our theme for the meeting is Resilience. I was recently speaking at an allied profession’s board meeting and was asked how landscape architects are responding to the issue of resilience. I had to pause, because in many ways we’re not doing anything differently than what we’ve always done.

Resiliency is inherent to how landscape architects are wired. It is who we are and what we do. We work with the land and nature, not against it. Our profession and the Society have shown resiliency through the past few difficult years. Much like Colorado’s beloved Aspen groves, which are strengthened by devastating forest fires and survive avalanches, our professional roots are interconnected, and we are emerging stronger than ever.

Denver is one of the few cities that was not built on a road, railroad, lake, navigable river, or body of water when it was founded. It just happened to be where the first few flakes of gold were found in 1858, but today it’s one of the greenest, healthiest, and, yes, most resilient cities in the world. From our central location downtown, we can immerse ourselves in its rich landscape architecture legacy, dating from the Olmsted Brothers to the many award-winning designers who are shaping the city today. Explore the website for hundreds more reasons to attend.